Name: Vul’grim Beastslaughterer Level: 25 Race: High Ogre
Age: 62 Years Job: Black Axe Master
Status: Health: 13821/13821 Mana: 2845/2845
Strength: 6621 Intelligence: 1712
Vitality: 6214 Wisdom: 4561
Agility: 3559 Stamina: 10820/10820
Effects: None
Skill: Magic skills and related:
[Mana Efficiency Lv. 5] [Mana Control Lv. 3]
Physical skills and related:
[True Unarmed Technique Lv. 4] [True Unarmed Mastery Lv. 4]
[True Axe Technique Lv. 4] [True Axe Mastery Lv. 3]
[Mana Strike Lv. 8] [Stamina Strike Lv. 10]
[All Damage Enhancement Lv. 2]
[Slaughter Blade Techniques Lv. 10]
Senses and movement skills:
[Stealth Lv. 3] [Accuracy Correction Lv. 8]
[Detection Sensor Lv. 3] [Concentration Lv. 10] [Foresight Lv. 1]
[Probability Correction Lv. 9] [Danger Perception Lv. 10]
[Enhanced Vision Lv. 5] [Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 5]
[Enhanced Olfactory Sense Lv. 6] [Tracking Lv. 9]
[Night Vision Lv. 10] [Presence Killer Lv. 3]
[Evasion Lv. 10] [Acrobatic Lv. 8]
[Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 7]
Resistance:
[Physical Super-Resistance Lv. 8] [Absolute Pain Tolerance]
[Mental Corruption Resistance Lv. 2] [Abnormal Status Nullification]
[Mind Protection Lv. 1] [Advance Abnormal Status Resistance Lv. 1]
[Fear Resistance Lv. 8] [Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 1]
[Lightning Resistance Lv. 3]
[Holy Resistance Lv. 7] [Inferno Resistance Lv. 2]
[Water Resistance Lv. 6] [Terra Resistance Lv. 1]
[Storm Resistance Lv. 1] [Tenebrous Resistance Lv. 5]
Stat growth and related:
[Health Recovery Lv. 10] [Mana Recovery Lv. 1] [Stamina Recovery Lv. 9]
[Enhanced Health Growth Lv. 7]
[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 5]
[Herculean Power Lv. 2]
[Indomitable Bulwark Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 4]
[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 4]
[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 7]
[Enhanced Stamina Capacity Lv. 5]
Others:
[Handicraft Lv. 7] [Woodworking Lv. 6] [Identity Blocker Lv. 3]
[Dismantle Lv. 10] [Terror Aura Lv. 7] [Starvation Lv. 6]
[Instruction Lv. 5] [Commander’s Aura]
Job:
[Berserker Soul] [True Axe Mastery Lv. 1] [Ravager’s Regeneration]
[Berserker’s Enmity] [Axe Technique Efficiency]
[Axe Technique Acceleration]
Ability List: Unarmed abilities:
[Steadfast Stance] [Gale Steps] [Crush Fist] [Spine Breaker]
Slaughter Blade abilities:
[Carnage Axe] [Decapitate] [Limb Slash] [Mana Bisecter] [Enmity Axe]
[Blood-Scar Axe]
Title: [Ogre King’s Black Guard]
[collapse]The plan was easy. Instead of fighting inside a cave where Hestia, our strongest member, would be at a disadvantage, we chose to lure the grimgarians out of the cave where she would have the constant resource regeneration of the sun on her side and wouldn’t have to worry about causing a cave-in. With how her scale-dust and attacks worked, especially her high damage options in the form of [Symphonie des Feuergottes], [Omnictus], and [Solar Beam], we had to avoid confrontations inside the cave.
Now, as this was a rescue mission, we also needed a way to enter the cave. Smoke and heat would cause the grimgarians to flee outside, so entering from the same way was not possible. However, what if we could dig our way into the inner sanctum? I had no idea if this cave was similar to the one we used to enter Artorias or if it only had one entrance, but for sure it had to be large enough to accommodate all the grimgarians inside it.
While goblins and kobolds could fit in smaller caverns, Lucia mentioned there were orcs too. After I snuck in a [Shadow Snake] to scout out the cave, I was confident we could make our own entrance into the cave, avoiding the chaos Hestia would create as our distraction.
True to his word, Cernust was a capable digger in his drake form. His draconic skill [Floral Overgrowth] and his beastman form’s empty vessel magic skill [Floral Magic] had a way to soften up soil and rock to make room for plants to grow, which we used to dig our way through the side of the mountain. It took us nearly a whole night to dig ourselves through it, but Cernust was able to handle it.
We had Hestia stay at the entrance where she could go wild as much as she wanted to lure out all the enemies, and, once it got too hot for her, she could always run away while leaving an inferno behind. Meanwhile, I would lead a party through the new side entrance and rescue Lucia’s party members, whom I luckily managed to locate with my initial scouting. We left Severa, Lucia, and the red-haired boy with Bornelli while we ventured inside with wet cloth covering our mouths and noses from the smoke.
We entered the prison chamber and got the three adventurers out of their cages, giving the wolfkin Wulf and arvisian Verdiena some potions to help them recover their wounds afterwards. The human, on the other hand, required professional treatment since Tasianna diluted all our moderate potions to make more minors for selling. Unfortunate.
As we were about to extract, the worst possible encounter appeared right before our exit. A towering ogre, as tall as a house and wielding a massive axe, showed himself. How did he find us? I asked myself, but then I saw smoke leaving through the exit Cernust had dug for us, and immediately wondered if the ogre saw this and stayed next to the exit to ambush us. Nevetheless, it didn’t matter now, as we had already been discovered.
Sadly for us, this guy was no joke looking at his Profile. Sure, I was able to outmaneuver him, but he had higher stats in all other categories. This was without adding to the fact that he had a full set of armor and an axe, meaning his Profile probably wasn’t an accurate representation of his full power. If he had more cards up his sleeves, this would be even worse.
We couldn’t fight him, we couldn’t defeat him. We needed to escape!
“Run!” I shouted, swinging both Wulf and Verdiena onto my shoulders. Cernust, who was carrying the human Raian, as well as Tasianna and Antonio all nodded and turned around.
“Craven …” The ogre, dissatisfied with our choice to run, scoffed at us before raising his axe. Putting his right leg before his body, he swung his axe downwards with both hands, cleaving the ground clean. “CARNAGE AXE!”
The shockwave of the ogre’s attack sent the four of us crashing to a wall. Wulf and Verdiena both fell from my back as I groaned, having to refill my empty lungs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to recover, as both [Danger Perception] and [Foresight] told me death was looming over my head.
Without even glancing upwards, I stomped the ground to dodge to the side, tackling Wulf and Verdiena. A massive explosion happened once again, this time it came from behind me, sending the three of us flying away. Thankfully, I was able to react to this attack by using [Air Walk] to keep myself from crashing into another wall while carrying the two beastmen.
Dammit! How the hell am I supposed to get out?
[Shadow Dash] required line-of-sight and I had to be close enough to the shadow I wanted to exit from for the spell to work. While I could see through [Shadow Snake]’s eyes when I scouted the cave, I wasn’t able to use it to rescue those three adventurers without being close enough that I risked being discovered by the grimgarians when leaving my shadow. And now, those limitations of [Shadow Dash] were biting me on my tail. It was a terrible problem.
Umbral Pendulum! Enfeebling Winds!
I materialized two magic circles at once, one summoned a giant pendulum from the ceiling while another simply latched onto the ogre’s body, slowly draining his health and sending it to me like a leech.
“Feeble magics. Mana Bisecter!” The ogre’s muscles tensed up as he faced my tenebrous element spell, and then swung his axe, now clad in a blue aura. My pendulum and his axe clashed against each other, causing a loud boom to echo through the cave. Both blades were pushing against each other, attempting to shove the other to the side; however, I could just make out the blade of my pendulum dissipating against the ogre’s attack.
“Back out! Accelerated Growth!”
“Madam Saori! Torrential Rain! Icicle Gust!”
As if on command, multiple grey vines burst from the ground, entwining themselves around the ogre’s legs and waist, before water bullets and ice spikes showered from the ceiling, buffeting the ogre’s unprotected face.
“Grrrurgh!” The ogre winced as his face was slowly being frozen, but then gave out a warcry and punched my pendulum to the side. The black construct swerved to the side and crashed into the wall, slicing into it like butter.
“Tasianna! The ogre has a middling [Water Resistance] and no [Ice Resistance]! Continue your attacks!” I shouted.
“Understood!” she responded before shooting her floating ice blades at him.
“Severa’s brother! Carry this guy!” Cernust, after taking out another set of seeds, threw the unconscious Raian over to Antonio, who barely was able to catch the muscular man.
“Arck! Wha—?” Baffled, his face began to contort as he realized what Cernust meant by this gesture. “I am a knight! As if you—”
“Shut up, you stubborn fool! What can you provide to this fight other than your puny sword and weak wind magic? You don’t even have that bird! Some people can actually contribute to this fight so do us a favor and help unload our burdens!” Cernust threw his seeds onto the ground before pointing at me, or more specifically, the two groaning beastmen I was carrying. After he said his piece, Cernust put his entire focus on the next spell.
Antonio clicked his tongue but sheathed his sword nevertheless, running over to me. Wulf and Verdiena quickly understood what was happening and demanded me to throw them onto the ground and concentrate on the fight.
“The potion worked. I can’t fly, but I can run!” Verdiena reassured me, looking determined to not be more of a burden.
“We got ourselves in this mess! Don’t hold back on our account, sister!” Wulf cried out.
“I am not your sister, idiot!” Somehow, him calling me sister annoyed me a bit—we weren’t siblings, just to clarify. Regardless, I threw them as hard as I could over to Antonio.
Verdiena quickly placed Raian’s arm over her shoulder, while Wulf picked up his legs. The four of them quickly moved to our self-made exit.
“Just run! Activate Plan B!” I called out before activating another spell.
Smokey Haze!
My shadow exploded into a black cloud, enveloping the ogre and me in it. I then called out my garms to join the fight. [“Uno, Song, Sarasa, I order you to not die! Skirmish, but do not go for risky attacks! Quatre is waiting for you three!”]
[“Yes, Alpha!”] They shouted before commencing their attacks.
While the ogre was still confused, I also made sure to inform Tasianna and Cernust of our next move, including the ogre’s current position through my [Heat Vision].
[“Plan B?! Understood, Miss Saori”] Tasianna responded before my ears picked up another set of ice spells bombarding the ogre.
Cernust didn’t answer, but I trusted him to understand what I meant. While I didn’t plan for the commander to attack us, I wasn’t careless enough to go into this without a backup plan nor did I neglect to inform Cernust and Antonio about my abilities. Now I had to repay his trust by getting him out of here alive.
“Mhmm? Mhmm!” The ogre sniffed and seemed to have found somebody.
The sound of breaking ice and plants could be heard from afar, meaning the giant was breaking through his bindings. Clanging metal also echoed, which I presume was from the ogre using his weapon as a shield against Tasianna’s attacks.
With [Heat Vision], his red silhouette could be seen ripping through the growing plants Cernust was was creating. A giant venus flytrap tried to maul him, but he cut it down like a lumberjack, turning it into compost.
This is just insane! Why did I get us all into this mess?
I couldn’t let myself fall back into my bad habits. That controlling and paranoid Saori who feared risks. I had to trust Hestia, Tasianna, and Cernust here. I had to trust in my shadow pack. Rescuing these people was the correct move to take … just like what father did. Enough of these thoughts, I had to think! Action!
To escape, we needed to buy some time, and for that, I dashed forward. Gale Steps, I thought as I activated the ability. Although I was practically sweating when I returned to the mansion that day, I managed to learn [Gale Steps] in a single day with Gael’s help, who kept his word and finally taught me something useful. It was just in time, as we had to leave on our current Quest the very next day.
With my agility boosting buffs and [Gale Steps], I closed the distance between the ogre and myself in a matter of seconds. I took out multiple mana threads from my storage and threw a few of them onto the ground, where my garms picked them up with their mouths. Summoning multiple [Dark Tendrils], I activated [Humanize] and readied myself to trap this giant in a spiderweb.
Dammit, room is too small to fight in my cadejo form with my shadow pack. Arrgh, I don’t want to fight with only two-thirds of my stats!
“Good! Battles are where we prove our mettle to the gods! Let us seek the thrill of Goddess Death’s realm together. Show me if my excitement was warranted or if my expectations were too high!” The ogre burst into a fit of mad laughter, enjoying himself despite being attacked without being able to respond. With a single move, he crushed another vine and tore it off like some ragged piece of clothing.
Without another word, my garms and I began replacing the removed vines with mana threads and [Dark Tendrils], entwining him until he began to look like a Christmas tree with how colorful he was. After it was done, I poured mana into a blue string, activating all my threads as tons of elemental effects collided with each other around the ogre’s body, creating a rainbow of sparks.
[“Run! Now!”] I commanded, retreating out of my shadow cloud with Cernust, Tasianna, and my garms. We had to get to the exit!
“Not so fast.” As I left the cloud, a chill ran down my spines as my defensive skills warned me to dodge.
However, the information they gave me—where the safe spot was—caused my eyes to widen as I realized I couldn’t make it there in time. The time for me to cast a spell and dodge away from the attack was impossible, there was no way for me to use [Dark Tendrils] or [Shadow Dash] to dodge.
I turned my head around to see a massive axe descending down on me with an aura of blue and blood dripping from the axehead.
“Blood-Scar Axe”
Ku—!
[“Alpha!”]
My mind went blank. I didn’t know how my body moved, but it moved. Not through my legs, but it felt as if a truck just slammed against me with full force, sending me flying away as the axe crashed against the ground. Although the blade didn’t touch me, a massive red explosion still appeared from the crash site.
“Kyaaaaarghhh!” I screamed as it felt like a tsunami had dragged me away. I groaned as the sound of splintering rocks flooded my ears.
The moment my mind defogged, pain surged through my body like never before. The aching wouldn’t stop even as I saw white flames consuming my whole body. I tried to move but it felt as if something was blocking my limbs from moving until I somehow struggled through it.
My head was twirling around uncontrollably, causing my vision to blur. The vertigo kicked in immediately as I took my first step forward, causing me to collapse onto my knees. I tried to stop myself, but the wind kept blowing through my hair and eyes as the ground came closer and closer, before—thunk!
“KYAAAAAAAAARRGHHHHHHH! ARGHHHHKRRRRIIIII!” I screamed as that blow to my head cleared up even more of the fog.
My thigh. A piercing pain exploded from my right thigh as I clutched it with my right arm, unable to move my left arm at all. Blood was gushing out of a large wound there, for a sharp piece of rock was protruding out of my leg. I screamed and screamed, even though [Absolute Pain Tolerance] was working properly.
I had no ideas. My mind was empty of reason and logic. Although, maybe that was why my body suddenly felt more powerful as adrenaline flowed through my blood, awakening my instincts. Clenching my mouth to stop screaming, I pulled the rock out, revealing a huge hole there. I felt sickened, ready to puke. I wanted to deny that the small hint of white was my bone.
“Hiieen. Whiiieeen …” A weak whimper drew my focus.
I turned my head up, powering through my weakened body to see a giant wolf lying in its own blood. A bloody scar ran through its face, blocking my sight of its right eye.
[“U-Uno …”]
A ripped collar was lying on the bloody ground. The name “Uno” was stitched on it with red threads. I felt my heart tearing apart.
[“Alpha!”]
Song’s and Sarasa’s voices entered my head as I felt a giant shadow look over me. Something then gently picked me up around my waist and flung me through the air before I landed on a soft, furry surface.
[“N-No … wait, Uno!”] The one who threw me on her back was Song, who turned away from her dying sibling. I tried to reach out to him, but Song reprimanded me.
[“We protect the Alpha! Secure the descendant of Belzac! Uno knew this!”]
My eyes widened.
Can’t I even protect my garms? What the hell have I been doing this whole time! Training? To lose like this?
[“Uno, this is an order! Stand up! Move with us!”] I demanded.
But nothing happened. Only the shaking of the ground could be heard as the ogre was closing in on Uno. The scythe of death was looming over him.
Am I losing somebody again? Am I letting Uno die for defending me? Why am I saving a stranger’s life just to lose somebody I care for!
It felt like something inside my heart fell. Memories of my father flooded through my brain as I looked at Uno’s twitching body, unable to respond even telepathically. A vision of my mother weeping over a coffin as her eyes lost color over all her tears. And then there was me, sitting on a table with dried tears, looking over a travel plan my father planned for our family’s first trip outside Japan.
Arrrgh!
Was I cursed to lose somebody every time I g0t too comfortable?
Wah?
A-a level? But we haven’t killed anything aside from—Hestia! The experience share from our party!
“Krriiiiiiiiiarghhhhhhh!” A deep cry of a giant beast echoed through the cave. The ground rumbled afterward, as numerous trees and vines sprouted out of the earth, assaulting the ogre and pushing him away from Uno.
“Away with you, grimgarian!” A shrill shout, filled with urgency and desperation, was accompanied by a massive frozen sword crashing against the ogre’s axe.
I turned towards the voices, witnessing a green giant komodo dragon with moss and wood growing on its back roaring while an elf with fairy wings had conjured up multiple magic circles.
. There a giant green komodo dragon with antlers on its head and moss and wood growing on its back and an elf with fairy wings flapping in the air came into my view. it was Tasianna and Cernust.
“Sarasa, get Uno! We’re buying time!” Tasianna shouted at a shadow, where a giant wolf jumped out and swooped in to carry Uno.
E-everybody?!
“Kriiiiarrghhhhh!” Cernust cried out once again in his drake form, summoning more plants to assist us. He barely fit in the room, to the point his antlers were sticking into the ceiling, forcing him to soften the rock for him to maneuver around.
Tasianna, forced to take out a mana potion from her belt from using too much mana, looked at me with a tense expression and shouted, “Miss Saori, leave this to us!”
I …
Taking care of my distressed mother alone after my father died. Forced to shoulder all our bills since my mother couldn’t work with her medical situation. Only relying on my co-workers for tips, but having to do my lesson planning alone. Sure, this wasn’t exactly a unique situation, I wager. Maybe I was a workaholic, like Hestia said, but working as efficiently and effectively as possible was simply how I ran my life before Peolynca.
When I had just been born, being a burden to Hestia was just the worst. I had to become stronger so I could stop being dead weight, but the more she evolved, the more the power gap between us widened. I was frustrated when I told her I wouldn’t be able to beat her in Carine village. I thought I had gotten better after training with the saurians, but … this fight just showed me what I was lacking.
A pack.
I was a garm, not a dragon. Humans and wolves were social animals, regardless of the few outliers. Uno saved me because of his sense of duty as a pack member, since wolves instinctively knew to protect the alpha male and female from harm. On the other hand, as the alpha, my job was to protect and nurture my pack.
And I failed here … but my pack and I were saved by my other “pack.” I looked at my party bracelet, realizing why I suddenly leveled up like this.
Hestia. Tasianna. Thank you.
I was glad that I wasn’t alone anymore. Similar to how I wanted Hestia to rely on us, I had to start relying on everybody else, as well! Putting everything on my shoulder just because I could had to stop!
Humanize!
Leveling up meant a full recovery for your health and mana, although it didn’t affect status effects. Fortunately, Hestia’s [Sacred Blaze] kept healing my broken ribs and bones, and, although I haven’t recovered fully, my leg and arms were functional enough.
As a blue mist exuded from my body, I turned back to my real form and jumped off Song’s back. Even if my size made it harder to move around in this room, I had to agree with Cernust after what happened—stats were far too important right now.
I three three bottles of dragorade for Song to catch, before speaking, [“Cernust, return to dragonewt form, now! Sarasa, run with Song and get Uno out of here! Song, have Uno drink the dragorade using the tendrils! Tasianna, onto me!”]
“Wroooohhhh!” My pack and I all howled; this was our war cry!
Umbral Pendulum!
With vines, trees, ice swords, and now a giant black pendulum pushing the ogre back, he bellowed out a laugh. “This will not stop me, gaha! Resist more, beasts! On my name ‘Beastslaughterer,’ I shall slay you and present your bodies to my King! I shall grant my King a set of armor made from a dragonkin!”
[“We might not be able to … but good luck with our Plan B.”] I immediately turned around and picked up Tasianna and Cernust before sprinting away from the ogre. With perfect timing, an explosion erupted from the entrance we made and water began flooding into the cave.
“WHAT? Guraaaaaghhh!” the ogre exclaimed before being consumed by the waves.
Enduring the pain in my body, I used the smoke as our crumb trail to rush through the tunnel with Song and Sarasa. The only thoughts I had were to get the fuck out of here as fast as possible since the sound of rushing water was echoing through the cave.
Sitting on my back, Cernust materialized an [Earth Wall] while Tasianna supported him with [Frozen Shield], all in an attempt to slow down the flooding. Nevertheless, it was futile as the pressure simply broke through them.
“Shit! Did we put too much water into that hole?!” Cernust anxiously cried out.
I did mention digging the hole took us nearly the whole night, right? Well, while we waited for the rescue mission to commence, I had Tasianna prepare Plan B for us—flood the cave. Digging an entirely different hole into the mountain, located next to our entrance, we had Tasianna fill the hole full with water, to the point it overflowed.
Before we entered the cave completely, I managed to plant one of Hestia’s bombs at the location of the water tunnel and attached a mana thread long enough to reach outside. We had to rely on Severa and Lucia—who were outside—to light the mana thread up. Honestly, after the ogre hit me with his attack, I actually thought I would die, either from the ogre or the flood. It was risky, but it was our luck that Hestia killed enough grimgarians to help me level up.
Cernust sighed in relief before smacking me on the back. “Shit, I was really worried there! Still, never did I think you were a beast too! I also didn’t expect Tasianna to have fairy wings! Are you a morphling too?”
[“Cernust, can you keep this a secret? Well, you are keeping Hestia’s secret, so can I presume you will?”] I asked him.
“Aha … well, I like to party and we dragonkins can’t take our liquor well. So easy to get drunk, you know?” Cernust laughed boisterous, before he quietened down a bit. “But, you got my word. I wouldn’t expose another dragonkin while on her pilgrimage, especially not one of my princesses and her friends … Although, I always thought the youngest princess was a kirin, not another dragon.”
‘Youngest princess?’ Hold on, Hestia has a dragonkin sister? And she’s, what, a kirin?
“Please, keep it a secret, Mister Cernust. We are not at the stage to reveal it to everybody yet,” Tasianna sighed while massaging her temples. Since she didn’t follow up on it, neither did I.
Our progress through the cave was steady as Tasianna and Cernust kept blocking the flood from filling our escape tunnel, although the water quickly broke through the earth and ice every time. Thankfully, Uno seemed to have stabilized with the dragorade and the few potions we had him drink. However, until Hestia treated him, I will keep worrying about him.
As the light of the entrance came into view and the sound of water eventually stopped, we thought we were finally out of danger. That was when we saw the outside.
“Kriiiiiiiiaaaarrghhhhh!”
Blood, ashes, and corpses. Those three words were enough to describe the scene. A giant troll with two flags attached to its back was hanging around on three earthen spikes piercing through its head, chest, and stomach. The charred bodies of goblins and kobolds were scattered everywhere on the ground. Mangled corpses of orcs, so gory I didn’t even want to describe them, were lying in growing pools of their own blood.
The wretched smell of scorched flesh caused me to wrinkle my snout, horrified at what I was looking at. Cernust and Tasianna gulped, looking terrified, while my garms winced from the sheer heat around. I had watched enough war documentaries to know when I had entered a war-torn battlefield.
D-did she go crazy again?!
[Battle Frenzy (Moderate)]—one of Hestia’s biggest fears was being consumed by that status effect once again, where she would go berserk and destroy anything she found. Last time, we couldn’t stop her when it happened, and I wasn’t sure if we could do it now either.
[“WHAT TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG?”]
However, it seemed I was mistaken.
[“HELP ME!”]
Standing on air with [Air Walk] was a girl in a full suit of [Panzer], although, looking at how damaged the armor was, it looked far too intimidating for the idol icon our crimson dragon wished to be. Hestia, oh, Hestia.
White flames were covering her body, regenerating any damage she had, while purple flames were repairing her damaged [Panzer] armor as fast as it could. It also seemed like she’d had to transform back into [Humanize (Minor)] to combat her enemies.
Disturbingly, though, she was holding onto the decapitated head of an orc, having melted its helmet right onto its flesh. Flames were being released through her maw, while a deep growl escaped it. At this very moment, I thought I was looking at a demon.
“… That’s a tyrant, all right. That’s a Kargryxmor!” Cernust shivered.
“Taunt!” As I was assessing the situation, an orc in a suit of black armor cried out into the sky with his shield held up high.
Hestia screamed for a second as if she was surprised by something before roaring at the orc with pure hostility, shooting a [Lightning Bolt] and throwing the severed head at them. The orc defended against the projectiles with his shield, showing no signs of damage except for his shivering arm.
Meanwhile, multiple arrows were shot from the trees into the sky where Hestia was floating. She cast a barrier of light, [Sanctuary], to protect her from the incoming volley of arrows, but large bolts of darkness broke through the barrier, cast by a troll shaman and a group of echikobold mages in green robes.
Two of those echikobolds suddenly took out a vial of blood each and ingested them. Their bodies suddenly morphed, growing not only in size but began to show the distinctive features of monsters while the kobolds screamed out in pain. Once the transformation stopped, one kobold jumped on the other’s arms and was immediately thrown into the sky as the rain of arrows stopped.
Hestia’s tail caught fire as she saw the approaching oversized kobold before piercing it with it. She frowned and clicked her tongue at the fact her tail didn’t perforate the kobold but kept her cool and used [Wind Blast] to shoot herself to the ground as more arrows and spells were shot at her.
Once on the ground, the kobold punched at Hestia, which she blocked, but then it managed to grab her arm. She opened up her mouth as it did this and scorched the kobold to a charred corpse with a crimson dragon breath. As she removed the kobold’s crumbling arm, another orc shouted “Taunt!” at her, drawing her attention towards him momentarily as another orc in black armor slammed her with his shield from the back.
As she was sent flying towards another orc, she stopped mid-flight with [Air Walk] and swung her tail at said orc, piercing through his shield and into his shoulder. Using her claws, she ripped the shield apart and disarmed the orc of his weapon, forcing the orc onto his knees with a small spark explosion in front of the orc’s armored head.
[“Damn, that [Taunt] penalty!”] she cursed as a helmetless orc slammed his axe into her shoulder, barely stopping because she grabbed the blade. He then kicked her back, allowing the helmetless to grab the armored orc and flee. A look of terror was clear on its face.
Rightfully so and not a second too soon, an aura of extreme heat exploded from Hestia’s location.
Dreadflare Aura!
“Kriiiiarghhhh!” Hestia roared as she stood back up and slapped her cheeks. A white magic circle quickly healed her up. [‘“STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE IDIOTS AND HELP ME ALREADY! HELP ME FUCK UP THESE FUCKING TAUNT SPAMMERS!”]
“Taunt!” A different orc knight shouted.
[“FUCKING HELL! Stop using that damn ability to shout in my ears you green asshole! I’ll kick your ass, mince you into tartare, and turn you into cinders!”]
“Miss Saori, we need to help immediately!”
[“O-oh, yes! You are right! Cernust, help us out!”]
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you! Can’t exactly let her rampage too much” Cernust said, sounding uneasy. “Fuck, I hate [Taunt] rotations. That damn loud voice ringing in your brain is just unbearable.”
I had no idea what was happening, but Hestia was clearly having trouble fighting off her enemies. Regardless of what happened, it was better to suck it up and help her since we needed to leav—
“Did you really think you could stop me?”
…
Rocks and wood had broken through his armor and were now protruding from his body, there was a large gaping wound on his right shoulder, and his left arm was now missing. That was the appearance of the ogre commander. However, despite all of his wounds, the smile he had sent a chill down my spine. He pointed his axe at us.
He s-survived?!
[“Hestia! Transform back into a dragon right now! RUN!”]
AbyssRaven
I would like to remind you guys that the first book of A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale will soon be released! To be exact, it will come out on the 1st of August for Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible as an audio book! It's soooooon! And I will deliver the next piece of information once we get even closer, just remind yourself that on the 1st of August, you can read an edited version of the story fitting after 3 years of writing it. Please, remember, because I will remind you guys again!
Sadly, I would like to also remind everybody that I will be stubbing this book. I will have to remove chapters up to Chapter 37: A Warm Shower and Meal, What Could be Better? for Kindle Unlimited. I still hope all of you will continue supporting me and would give the book version a try! It will be a new retelling of the original story with more details. Regardless, that doesn't mean I will stop posting more chapters for Scribble Hub!
Also, to those reading this after just binging the story (I see you guys), thank you all very much for the support. I understand this message is very sudden, it'll probably be worse for those currently reading up to chapter 37, however this is a step I have to take. As such, all I can ask if that you guys will continue supporting the story! There is soooo much more to Hestia's story that awaits you guys here, so it will be more interesting. And, if you every get that itch to reread, the official book can solve that!
As a reminder, put a reminder for the 1st of August! I will be needing everybody's support! Hestia needs you!
Name: Vul’grim Beastslaughterer Level: 25 Race: High Ogre
Age: 62 Years Job: Black Axe Master
Status: Health: 13821/13821 Mana: 2845/2845
Strength: 6621 Intelligence: 1712
Vitality: 6214 Wisdom: 4561
Agility: 3559 Stamina: 10820/10820
Effects: None
Skill: Magic skills and related:
[Mana Efficiency Lv. 5] [Mana Control Lv. 3]
Physical skills and related:
[True Unarmed Technique Lv. 4] [True Unarmed Mastery Lv. 4]
[True Axe Technique Lv. 4] [True Axe Mastery Lv. 3]
[Mana Strike Lv. 8] [Stamina Strike Lv. 10]
[All Damage Enhancement Lv. 2]
[Slaughter Blade Techniques Lv. 10]
Senses and movement skills:
[Stealth Lv. 3] [Accuracy Correction Lv. 8]
[Detection Sensor Lv. 3] [Concentration Lv. 10] [Foresight Lv. 1]
[Probability Correction Lv. 9] [Danger Perception Lv. 10]
[Enhanced Vision Lv. 5] [Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 5]
[Enhanced Olfactory Sense Lv. 6] [Tracking Lv. 9]
[Night Vision Lv. 10] [Presence Killer Lv. 3]
[Evasion Lv. 10] [Acrobatic Lv. 8]
[Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 7]
Resistance:
[Physical Super-Resistance Lv. 8] [Absolute Pain Tolerance]
[Mental Corruption Resistance Lv. 2] [Abnormal Status Nullification]
[Mind Protection Lv. 1] [Advance Abnormal Status Resistance Lv. 1]
[Fear Resistance Lv. 8] [Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 1]
[Lightning Resistance Lv. 3]
[Holy Resistance Lv. 7] [Inferno Resistance Lv. 2]
[Water Resistance Lv. 6] [Terra Resistance Lv. 1]
[Storm Resistance Lv. 1] [Tenebrous Resistance Lv. 5]
Stat growth and related:
[Health Recovery Lv. 10] [Mana Recovery Lv. 1] [Stamina Recovery Lv. 9]
[Enhanced Health Growth Lv. 7]
[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 5]
[Herculean Power Lv. 2]
[Indomitable Bulwark Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 4]
[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 4]
[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 7]
[Enhanced Stamina Capacity Lv. 5]
Others:
[Handicraft Lv. 7] [Woodworking Lv. 6] [Identity Blocker Lv. 3]
[Dismantle Lv. 10] [Terror Aura Lv. 7] [Starvation Lv. 6]
[Instruction Lv. 5] [Commander’s Aura]
Job:
[Berserker Soul] [True Axe Mastery Lv. 1] [Ravager’s Regeneration]
[Berserker’s Enmity] [Axe Technique Efficiency]
[Axe Technique Acceleration]
Ability List: Unarmed abilities:
[Steadfast Stance] [Gale Steps] [Crush Fist] [Spine Breaker]
Slaughter Blade abilities:
[Carnage Axe] [Decapitate] [Limb Slash] [Mana Bisecter] [Enmity Axe]
[Blood-Scar Axe]
Title: [Ogre King’s Black Guard]
[collapse]The plan was easy. Instead of fighting inside a cave where Hestia, our strongest member, would be at a disadvantage, we chose to lure the grimgarians out of the cave where she would have the constant resource regeneration of the sun on her side and wouldn’t have to worry about causing a cave-in. With how her scale-dust and attacks worked, especially her high damage options in the form of [Symphonie des Feuergottes], [Omnictus], and [Solar Beam], we had to avoid confrontations inside the cave.
Now, as this was a rescue mission, we also needed a way to enter the cave. Smoke and heat would cause the grimgarians to flee outside, so entering from the same way was not possible. However, what if we could dig our way into the inner sanctum? I had no idea if this cave was similar to the one we used to enter Artorias or if it only had one entrance, but for sure it had to be large enough to accommodate all the grimgarians inside it.
While goblins and kobolds could fit in smaller caverns, Lucia mentioned there were orcs too. After I snuck in a [Shadow Snake] to scout out the cave, I was confident we could make our own entrance into the cave, avoiding the chaos Hestia would create as our distraction.
True to his word, Cernust was a capable digger in his drake form. His draconic skill [Floral Overgrowth] and his beastman form’s empty vessel magic skill [Floral Magic] had a way to soften up soil and rock to make room for plants to grow, which we used to dig our way through the side of the mountain. It took us nearly a whole night to dig ourselves through it, but Cernust was able to handle it.
We had Hestia stay at the entrance where she could go wild as much as she wanted to lure out all the enemies, and, once it got too hot for her, she could always run away while leaving an inferno behind. Meanwhile, I would lead a party through the new side entrance and rescue Lucia’s party members, whom I luckily managed to locate with my initial scouting. We left Severa, Lucia, and the red-haired boy with Bornelli while we ventured inside with wet cloth covering our mouths and noses from the smoke.
We entered the prison chamber and got the three adventurers out of their cages, giving the wolfkin Wulf and arvisian Verdiena some potions to help them recover their wounds afterwards. The human, on the other hand, required professional treatment since Tasianna diluted all our moderate potions to make more minors for selling. Unfortunate.
As we were about to extract, the worst possible encounter appeared right before our exit. A towering ogre, as tall as a house and wielding a massive axe, showed himself. How did he find us? I asked myself, but then I saw smoke leaving through the exit Cernust had dug for us, and immediately wondered if the ogre saw this and stayed next to the exit to ambush us. Nevetheless, it didn’t matter now, as we had already been discovered.
Sadly for us, this guy was no joke looking at his Profile. Sure, I was able to outmaneuver him, but he had higher stats in all other categories. This was without adding to the fact that he had a full set of armor and an axe, meaning his Profile probably wasn’t an accurate representation of his full power. If he had more cards up his sleeves, this would be even worse.
We couldn’t fight him, we couldn’t defeat him. We needed to escape!
“Run!” I shouted, swinging both Wulf and Verdiena onto my shoulders. Cernust, who was carrying the human Raian, as well as Tasianna and Antonio all nodded and turned around.
“Craven …” The ogre, dissatisfied with our choice to run, scoffed at us before raising his axe. Putting his right leg before his body, he swung his axe downwards with both hands, cleaving the ground clean. “CARNAGE AXE!”
The shockwave of the ogre’s attack sent the four of us crashing to a wall. Wulf and Verdiena both fell from my back as I groaned, having to refill my empty lungs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to recover, as both [Danger Perception] and [Foresight] told me death was looming over my head.
Without even glancing upwards, I stomped the ground to dodge to the side, tackling Wulf and Verdiena. A massive explosion happened once again, this time it came from behind me, sending the three of us flying away. Thankfully, I was able to react to this attack by using [Air Walk] to keep myself from crashing into another wall while carrying the two beastmen.
Dammit! How the hell am I supposed to get out?
[Shadow Dash] required line-of-sight and I had to be close enough to the shadow I wanted to exit from for the spell to work. While I could see through [Shadow Snake]’s eyes when I scouted the cave, I wasn’t able to use it to rescue those three adventurers without being close enough that I risked being discovered by the grimgarians when leaving my shadow. And now, those limitations of [Shadow Dash] were biting me on my tail. It was a terrible problem.
Umbral Pendulum! Enfeebling Winds!
I materialized two magic circles at once, one summoned a giant pendulum from the ceiling while another simply latched onto the ogre’s body, slowly draining his health and sending it to me like a leech.
“Feeble magics. Mana Bisecter!” The ogre’s muscles tensed up as he faced my tenebrous element spell, and then swung his axe, now clad in a blue aura. My pendulum and his axe clashed against each other, causing a loud boom to echo through the cave. Both blades were pushing against each other, attempting to shove the other to the side; however, I could just make out the blade of my pendulum dissipating against the ogre’s attack.
“Back out! Accelerated Growth!”
“Madam Saori! Torrential Rain! Icicle Gust!”
As if on command, multiple grey vines burst from the ground, entwining themselves around the ogre’s legs and waist, before water bullets and ice spikes showered from the ceiling, buffeting the ogre’s unprotected face.
“Grrrurgh!” The ogre winced as his face was slowly being frozen, but then gave out a warcry and punched my pendulum to the side. The black construct swerved to the side and crashed into the wall, slicing into it like butter.
“Tasianna! The ogre has a middling [Water Resistance] and no [Ice Resistance]! Continue your attacks!” I shouted.
“Understood!” she responded before shooting her floating ice blades at him.
“Severa’s brother! Carry this guy!” Cernust, after taking out another set of seeds, threw the unconscious Raian over to Antonio, who barely was able to catch the muscular man.
“Arck! Wha—?” Baffled, his face began to contort as he realized what Cernust meant by this gesture. “I am a knight! As if you—”
“Shut up, you stubborn fool! What can you provide to this fight other than your puny sword and weak wind magic? You don’t even have that bird! Some people can actually contribute to this fight so do us a favor and help unload our burdens!” Cernust threw his seeds onto the ground before pointing at me, or more specifically, the two groaning beastmen I was carrying. After he said his piece, Cernust put his entire focus on the next spell.
Antonio clicked his tongue but sheathed his sword nevertheless, running over to me. Wulf and Verdiena quickly understood what was happening and demanded me to throw them onto the ground and concentrate on the fight.
“The potion worked. I can’t fly, but I can run!” Verdiena reassured me, looking determined to not be more of a burden.
“We got ourselves in this mess! Don’t hold back on our account, sister!” Wulf cried out.
“I am not your sister, idiot!” Somehow, him calling me sister annoyed me a bit—we weren’t siblings, just to clarify. Regardless, I threw them as hard as I could over to Antonio.
Verdiena quickly placed Raian’s arm over her shoulder, while Wulf picked up his legs. The four of them quickly moved to our self-made exit.
“Just run! Activate Plan B!” I called out before activating another spell.
Smokey Haze!
My shadow exploded into a black cloud, enveloping the ogre and me in it. I then called out my garms to join the fight. [“Uno, Song, Sarasa, I order you to not die! Skirmish, but do not go for risky attacks! Quatre is waiting for you three!”]
[“Yes, Alpha!”] They shouted before commencing their attacks.
While the ogre was still confused, I also made sure to inform Tasianna and Cernust of our next move, including the ogre’s current position through my [Heat Vision].
[“Plan B?! Understood, Miss Saori”] Tasianna responded before my ears picked up another set of ice spells bombarding the ogre.
Cernust didn’t answer, but I trusted him to understand what I meant. While I didn’t plan for the commander to attack us, I wasn’t careless enough to go into this without a backup plan nor did I neglect to inform Cernust and Antonio about my abilities. Now I had to repay his trust by getting him out of here alive.
“Mhmm? Mhmm!” The ogre sniffed and seemed to have found somebody.
The sound of breaking ice and plants could be heard from afar, meaning the giant was breaking through his bindings. Clanging metal also echoed, which I presume was from the ogre using his weapon as a shield against Tasianna’s attacks.
With [Heat Vision], his red silhouette could be seen ripping through the growing plants Cernust was was creating. A giant venus flytrap tried to maul him, but he cut it down like a lumberjack, turning it into compost.
This is just insane! Why did I get us all into this mess?
I couldn’t let myself fall back into my bad habits. That controlling and paranoid Saori who feared risks. I had to trust Hestia, Tasianna, and Cernust here. I had to trust in my shadow pack. Rescuing these people was the correct move to take … just like what father did. Enough of these thoughts, I had to think! Action!
To escape, we needed to buy some time, and for that, I dashed forward. Gale Steps, I thought as I activated the ability. Although I was practically sweating when I returned to the mansion that day, I managed to learn [Gale Steps] in a single day with Gael’s help, who kept his word and finally taught me something useful. It was just in time, as we had to leave on our current Quest the very next day.
With my agility boosting buffs and [Gale Steps], I closed the distance between the ogre and myself in a matter of seconds. I took out multiple mana threads from my storage and threw a few of them onto the ground, where my garms picked them up with their mouths. Summoning multiple [Dark Tendrils], I activated [Humanize] and readied myself to trap this giant in a spiderweb.
Dammit, room is too small to fight in my cadejo form with my shadow pack. Arrgh, I don’t want to fight with only two-thirds of my stats!
“Good! Battles are where we prove our mettle to the gods! Let us seek the thrill of Goddess Death’s realm together. Show me if my excitement was warranted or if my expectations were too high!” The ogre burst into a fit of mad laughter, enjoying himself despite being attacked without being able to respond. With a single move, he crushed another vine and tore it off like some ragged piece of clothing.
Without another word, my garms and I began replacing the removed vines with mana threads and [Dark Tendrils], entwining him until he began to look like a Christmas tree with how colorful he was. After it was done, I poured mana into a blue string, activating all my threads as tons of elemental effects collided with each other around the ogre’s body, creating a rainbow of sparks.
[“Run! Now!”] I commanded, retreating out of my shadow cloud with Cernust, Tasianna, and my garms. We had to get to the exit!
“Not so fast.” As I left the cloud, a chill ran down my spines as my defensive skills warned me to dodge.
However, the information they gave me—where the safe spot was—caused my eyes to widen as I realized I couldn’t make it there in time. The time for me to cast a spell and dodge away from the attack was impossible, there was no way for me to use [Dark Tendrils] or [Shadow Dash] to dodge.
I turned my head around to see a massive axe descending down on me with an aura of blue and blood dripping from the axehead.
“Blood-Scar Axe”
Ku—!
[“Alpha!”]
My mind went blank. I didn’t know how my body moved, but it moved. Not through my legs, but it felt as if a truck just slammed against me with full force, sending me flying away as the axe crashed against the ground. Although the blade didn’t touch me, a massive red explosion still appeared from the crash site.
“Kyaaaaarghhh!” I screamed as it felt like a tsunami had dragged me away. I groaned as the sound of splintering rocks flooded my ears.
The moment my mind defogged, pain surged through my body like never before. The aching wouldn’t stop even as I saw white flames consuming my whole body. I tried to move but it felt as if something was blocking my limbs from moving until I somehow struggled through it.
My head was twirling around uncontrollably, causing my vision to blur. The vertigo kicked in immediately as I took my first step forward, causing me to collapse onto my knees. I tried to stop myself, but the wind kept blowing through my hair and eyes as the ground came closer and closer, before—thunk!
“KYAAAAAAAAARRGHHHHHHH! ARGHHHHKRRRRIIIII!” I screamed as that blow to my head cleared up even more of the fog.
My thigh. A piercing pain exploded from my right thigh as I clutched it with my right arm, unable to move my left arm at all. Blood was gushing out of a large wound there, for a sharp piece of rock was protruding out of my leg. I screamed and screamed, even though [Absolute Pain Tolerance] was working properly.
I had no ideas. My mind was empty of reason and logic. Although, maybe that was why my body suddenly felt more powerful as adrenaline flowed through my blood, awakening my instincts. Clenching my mouth to stop screaming, I pulled the rock out, revealing a huge hole there. I felt sickened, ready to puke. I wanted to deny that the small hint of white was my bone.
“Hiieen. Whiiieeen …” A weak whimper drew my focus.
I turned my head up, powering through my weakened body to see a giant wolf lying in its own blood. A bloody scar ran through its face, blocking my sight of its right eye.
[“U-Uno …”]
A ripped collar was lying on the bloody ground. The name “Uno” was stitched on it with red threads. I felt my heart tearing apart.
[“Alpha!”]
Song’s and Sarasa’s voices entered my head as I felt a giant shadow look over me. Something then gently picked me up around my waist and flung me through the air before I landed on a soft, furry surface.
[“N-No … wait, Uno!”] The one who threw me on her back was Song, who turned away from her dying sibling. I tried to reach out to him, but Song reprimanded me.
[“We protect the Alpha! Secure the descendant of Belzac! Uno knew this!”]
My eyes widened.
Can’t I even protect my garms? What the hell have I been doing this whole time! Training? To lose like this?
[“Uno, this is an order! Stand up! Move with us!”] I demanded.
But nothing happened. Only the shaking of the ground could be heard as the ogre was closing in on Uno. The scythe of death was looming over him.
Am I losing somebody again? Am I letting Uno die for defending me? Why am I saving a stranger’s life just to lose somebody I care for!
It felt like something inside my heart fell. Memories of my father flooded through my brain as I looked at Uno’s twitching body, unable to respond even telepathically. A vision of my mother weeping over a coffin as her eyes lost color over all her tears. And then there was me, sitting on a table with dried tears, looking over a travel plan my father planned for our family’s first trip outside Japan.
Arrrgh!
Was I cursed to lose somebody every time I g0t too comfortable?
Wah?
A-a level? But we haven’t killed anything aside from—Hestia! The experience share from our party!
“Krriiiiiiiiiarghhhhhhh!” A deep cry of a giant beast echoed through the cave. The ground rumbled afterward, as numerous trees and vines sprouted out of the earth, assaulting the ogre and pushing him away from Uno.
“Away with you, grimgarian!” A shrill shout, filled with urgency and desperation, was accompanied by a massive frozen sword crashing against the ogre’s axe.
I turned towards the voices, witnessing a green giant komodo dragon with moss and wood growing on its back roaring while an elf with fairy wings had conjured up multiple magic circles.
. There a giant green komodo dragon with antlers on its head and moss and wood growing on its back and an elf with fairy wings flapping in the air came into my view. it was Tasianna and Cernust.
“Sarasa, get Uno! We’re buying time!” Tasianna shouted at a shadow, where a giant wolf jumped out and swooped in to carry Uno.
E-everybody?!
“Kriiiiarrghhhhh!” Cernust cried out once again in his drake form, summoning more plants to assist us. He barely fit in the room, to the point his antlers were sticking into the ceiling, forcing him to soften the rock for him to maneuver around.
Tasianna, forced to take out a mana potion from her belt from using too much mana, looked at me with a tense expression and shouted, “Miss Saori, leave this to us!”
I …
Taking care of my distressed mother alone after my father died. Forced to shoulder all our bills since my mother couldn’t work with her medical situation. Only relying on my co-workers for tips, but having to do my lesson planning alone. Sure, this wasn’t exactly a unique situation, I wager. Maybe I was a workaholic, like Hestia said, but working as efficiently and effectively as possible was simply how I ran my life before Peolynca.
When I had just been born, being a burden to Hestia was just the worst. I had to become stronger so I could stop being dead weight, but the more she evolved, the more the power gap between us widened. I was frustrated when I told her I wouldn’t be able to beat her in Carine village. I thought I had gotten better after training with the saurians, but … this fight just showed me what I was lacking.
A pack.
I was a garm, not a dragon. Humans and wolves were social animals, regardless of the few outliers. Uno saved me because of his sense of duty as a pack member, since wolves instinctively knew to protect the alpha male and female from harm. On the other hand, as the alpha, my job was to protect and nurture my pack.
And I failed here … but my pack and I were saved by my other “pack.” I looked at my party bracelet, realizing why I suddenly leveled up like this.
Hestia. Tasianna. Thank you.
I was glad that I wasn’t alone anymore. Similar to how I wanted Hestia to rely on us, I had to start relying on everybody else, as well! Putting everything on my shoulder just because I could had to stop!
Humanize!
Leveling up meant a full recovery for your health and mana, although it didn’t affect status effects. Fortunately, Hestia’s [Sacred Blaze] kept healing my broken ribs and bones, and, although I haven’t recovered fully, my leg and arms were functional enough.
As a blue mist exuded from my body, I turned back to my real form and jumped off Song’s back. Even if my size made it harder to move around in this room, I had to agree with Cernust after what happened—stats were far too important right now.
I three three bottles of dragorade for Song to catch, before speaking, [“Cernust, return to dragonewt form, now! Sarasa, run with Song and get Uno out of here! Song, have Uno drink the dragorade using the tendrils! Tasianna, onto me!”]
“Wroooohhhh!” My pack and I all howled; this was our war cry!
Umbral Pendulum!
With vines, trees, ice swords, and now a giant black pendulum pushing the ogre back, he bellowed out a laugh. “This will not stop me, gaha! Resist more, beasts! On my name ‘Beastslaughterer,’ I shall slay you and present your bodies to my King! I shall grant my King a set of armor made from a dragonkin!”
[“We might not be able to … but good luck with our Plan B.”] I immediately turned around and picked up Tasianna and Cernust before sprinting away from the ogre. With perfect timing, an explosion erupted from the entrance we made and water began flooding into the cave.
“WHAT? Guraaaaaghhh!” the ogre exclaimed before being consumed by the waves.
Enduring the pain in my body, I used the smoke as our crumb trail to rush through the tunnel with Song and Sarasa. The only thoughts I had were to get the fuck out of here as fast as possible since the sound of rushing water was echoing through the cave.
Sitting on my back, Cernust materialized an [Earth Wall] while Tasianna supported him with [Frozen Shield], all in an attempt to slow down the flooding. Nevertheless, it was futile as the pressure simply broke through them.
“Shit! Did we put too much water into that hole?!” Cernust anxiously cried out.
I did mention digging the hole took us nearly the whole night, right? Well, while we waited for the rescue mission to commence, I had Tasianna prepare Plan B for us—flood the cave. Digging an entirely different hole into the mountain, located next to our entrance, we had Tasianna fill the hole full with water, to the point it overflowed.
Before we entered the cave completely, I managed to plant one of Hestia’s bombs at the location of the water tunnel and attached a mana thread long enough to reach outside. We had to rely on Severa and Lucia—who were outside—to light the mana thread up. Honestly, after the ogre hit me with his attack, I actually thought I would die, either from the ogre or the flood. It was risky, but it was our luck that Hestia killed enough grimgarians to help me level up.
Cernust sighed in relief before smacking me on the back. “Shit, I was really worried there! Still, never did I think you were a beast too! I also didn’t expect Tasianna to have fairy wings! Are you a morphling too?”
[“Cernust, can you keep this a secret? Well, you are keeping Hestia’s secret, so can I presume you will?”] I asked him.
“Aha … well, I like to party and we dragonkins can’t take our liquor well. So easy to get drunk, you know?” Cernust laughed boisterous, before he quietened down a bit. “But, you got my word. I wouldn’t expose another dragonkin while on her pilgrimage, especially not one of my princesses and her friends … Although, I always thought the youngest princess was a kirin, not another dragon.”
‘Youngest princess?’ Hold on, Hestia has a dragonkin sister? And she’s, what, a kirin?
“Please, keep it a secret, Mister Cernust. We are not at the stage to reveal it to everybody yet,” Tasianna sighed while massaging her temples. Since she didn’t follow up on it, neither did I.
Our progress through the cave was steady as Tasianna and Cernust kept blocking the flood from filling our escape tunnel, although the water quickly broke through the earth and ice every time. Thankfully, Uno seemed to have stabilized with the dragorade and the few potions we had him drink. However, until Hestia treated him, I will keep worrying about him.
As the light of the entrance came into view and the sound of water eventually stopped, we thought we were finally out of danger. That was when we saw the outside.
“Kriiiiiiiiaaaarrghhhhh!”
Blood, ashes, and corpses. Those three words were enough to describe the scene. A giant troll with two flags attached to its back was hanging around on three earthen spikes piercing through its head, chest, and stomach. The charred bodies of goblins and kobolds were scattered everywhere on the ground. Mangled corpses of orcs, so gory I didn’t even want to describe them, were lying in growing pools of their own blood.
The wretched smell of scorched flesh caused me to wrinkle my snout, horrified at what I was looking at. Cernust and Tasianna gulped, looking terrified, while my garms winced from the sheer heat around. I had watched enough war documentaries to know when I had entered a war-torn battlefield.
D-did she go crazy again?!
[Battle Frenzy (Moderate)]—one of Hestia’s biggest fears was being consumed by that status effect once again, where she would go berserk and destroy anything she found. Last time, we couldn’t stop her when it happened, and I wasn’t sure if we could do it now either.
[“WHAT TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG?”]
However, it seemed I was mistaken.
[“HELP ME!”]
Standing on air with [Air Walk] was a girl in a full suit of [Panzer], although, looking at how damaged the armor was, it looked far too intimidating for the idol icon our crimson dragon wished to be. Hestia, oh, Hestia.
White flames were covering her body, regenerating any damage she had, while purple flames were repairing her damaged [Panzer] armor as fast as it could. It also seemed like she’d had to transform back into [Humanize (Minor)] to combat her enemies.
Disturbingly, though, she was holding onto the decapitated head of an orc, having melted its helmet right onto its flesh. Flames were being released through her maw, while a deep growl escaped it. At this very moment, I thought I was looking at a demon.
“… That’s a tyrant, all right. That’s a Kargryxmor!” Cernust shivered.
“Taunt!” As I was assessing the situation, an orc in a suit of black armor cried out into the sky with his shield held up high.
Hestia screamed for a second as if she was surprised by something before roaring at the orc with pure hostility, shooting a [Lightning Bolt] and throwing the severed head at them. The orc defended against the projectiles with his shield, showing no signs of damage except for his shivering arm.
Meanwhile, multiple arrows were shot from the trees into the sky where Hestia was floating. She cast a barrier of light, [Sanctuary], to protect her from the incoming volley of arrows, but large bolts of darkness broke through the barrier, cast by a troll shaman and a group of echikobold mages in green robes.
Two of those echikobolds suddenly took out a vial of blood each and ingested them. Their bodies suddenly morphed, growing not only in size but began to show the distinctive features of monsters while the kobolds screamed out in pain. Once the transformation stopped, one kobold jumped on the other’s arms and was immediately thrown into the sky as the rain of arrows stopped.
Hestia’s tail caught fire as she saw the approaching oversized kobold before piercing it with it. She frowned and clicked her tongue at the fact her tail didn’t perforate the kobold but kept her cool and used [Wind Blast] to shoot herself to the ground as more arrows and spells were shot at her.
Once on the ground, the kobold punched at Hestia, which she blocked, but then it managed to grab her arm. She opened up her mouth as it did this and scorched the kobold to a charred corpse with a crimson dragon breath. As she removed the kobold’s crumbling arm, another orc shouted “Taunt!” at her, drawing her attention towards him momentarily as another orc in black armor slammed her with his shield from the back.
As she was sent flying towards another orc, she stopped mid-flight with [Air Walk] and swung her tail at said orc, piercing through his shield and into his shoulder. Using her claws, she ripped the shield apart and disarmed the orc of his weapon, forcing the orc onto his knees with a small spark explosion in front of the orc’s armored head.
[“Damn, that [Taunt] penalty!”] she cursed as a helmetless orc slammed his axe into her shoulder, barely stopping because she grabbed the blade. He then kicked her back, allowing the helmetless to grab the armored orc and flee. A look of terror was clear on its face.
Rightfully so and not a second too soon, an aura of extreme heat exploded from Hestia’s location.
Dreadflare Aura!
“Kriiiiarghhhh!” Hestia roared as she stood back up and slapped her cheeks. A white magic circle quickly healed her up. [‘“STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE IDIOTS AND HELP ME ALREADY! HELP ME FUCK UP THESE FUCKING TAUNT SPAMMERS!”]
“Taunt!” A different orc knight shouted.
[“FUCKING HELL! Stop using that damn ability to shout in my ears you green asshole! I’ll kick your ass, mince you into tartare, and turn you into cinders!”]
“Miss Saori, we need to help immediately!”
[“O-oh, yes! You are right! Cernust, help us out!”]
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you! Can’t exactly let her rampage too much” Cernust said, sounding uneasy. “Fuck, I hate [Taunt] rotations. That damn loud voice ringing in your brain is just unbearable.”
I had no idea what was happening, but Hestia was clearly having trouble fighting off her enemies. Regardless of what happened, it was better to suck it up and help her since we needed to leav—
“Did you really think you could stop me?”
…
Rocks and wood had broken through his armor and were now protruding from his body, there was a large gaping wound on his right shoulder, and his left arm was now missing. That was the appearance of the ogre commander. However, despite all of his wounds, the smile he had sent a chill down my spine. He pointed his axe at us.
He s-survived?!
[“Hestia! Transform back into a dragon right now! RUN!”]
AbyssRaven
I would like to remind you guys that the first book of A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale will soon be released! To be exact, it will come out on the 1st of August for Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible as an audio book! It's soooooon! And I will deliver the next piece of information once we get even closer, just remind yourself that on the 1st of August, you can read an edited version of the story fitting after 3 years of writing it. Please, remember, because I will remind you guys again!
Sadly, I would like to also remind everybody that I will be stubbing this book. I will have to remove chapters up to Chapter 37: A Warm Shower and Meal, What Could be Better? for Kindle Unlimited. I still hope all of you will continue supporting me and would give the book version a try! It will be a new retelling of the original story with more details. Regardless, that doesn't mean I will stop posting more chapters for Scribble Hub!
Also, to those reading this after just binging the story (I see you guys), thank you all very much for the support. I understand this message is very sudden, it'll probably be worse for those currently reading up to chapter 37, however this is a step I have to take. As such, all I can ask if that you guys will continue supporting the story! There is soooo much more to Hestia's story that awaits you guys here, so it will be more interesting. And, if you every get that itch to reread, the official book can solve that!
As a reminder, put a reminder for the 1st of August! I will be needing everybody's support! Hestia needs you!
